Since being tapped by a model scout at age 16 for her otherworldly beauty, Karen Elson has charted a singularly influential path within the worlds of fashion and entertainment alike. She’s walked runways for Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, and Gucci; worked with legendary photographers like the late Patrick Demarchelier and Ellen Von Unwerth; and appeared in a number of short film projects, including the music video for “Blue Orchid” by her ex-husband Jack White’s band, the White Stripes.
In 2004, at age 25, the flame-haired fixture proved her performance chops when she co-founded the New York-based cabaret troupe, the Citizens Band (Zoe Kravitz, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Rain Phoenix have all appeared with them since). In 2010, she struck out on her own with her debut solo album, The Ghost Who Walks, which was followed by Double Roses in 2017.
Today, Elson is dropping her third record, Green, which was written and recorded during the pandemic. A stark departure from her previous projects, the new album features nine country-tinged tracks (a product, as she explains, of living in Nashville) that are meant to serve as sonic sunshine to cut through the darkness of the pandemic.
To celebrate the album’s release, BAZAAR.com speaks with Elson over the phone about ignoring underestimation, the synergy between her two careers, and falling back in love with music.
It’s been five years since your last record. How is Green different than your previous projects?
While I’d written and performed songs before, and was in the Citizens Band cabaret, my first record, The Ghost Who Walks, was my foray into writing a whole album. Double Roses, my second album, was also very intimate, but more melancholy. With Green, the experience of writing and recording it has been a pleasure.
I worked with Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, the incredible producers of the record, and I also really tapped into my local Nashville community in a way that really brought things home. The whole experience was wholeheartedly positive. I think you even hear that in the music—it’s a departure, in a sense, from my other records, which were a bit darker. Green is like a ray of light. It feels like sunshine, which was my intention.
When I originally started thinking about making another record, I had two states of mind, one being like, “Ugh!” It was when Me Too was happening, and I felt like I had to read every problematic man the Riot Act. Then, when COVID hit, I pivoted completely, because I realized I personally needed a respite. I needed a little bit of hope in all the darkness that we were dealing with. Music became that for me again, during lockdowns and whatnot. I started falling in love with music again, and that’s what I wanted this album to represent.
Emily Dorio
That’s wonderful. Was most of it written and recorded during COVID?
The entirety of it, yeah.
That’s so cool, because I know for many artists, COVID was not a creatively fruitful period.
COVID was unbearably difficult for everybody. My relief was music. My relief was hiding in my office, learning how to play a song, falling in love again with music, and being a music fan. It brought me back to that teenage feeling of sitting in your room, listening to your Walkman, daydreaming. This record was me grasping for the silver lining, for real.
Where does the album’s title come from?
When we were in the studio, it was sort of, “What should this record be called?” At first, I thought it should be called Broken Shadow, but then, because I’d had Double Roses, I felt like maybe Broken Shadow sounded a bit pessimistic and a bit sad. Green felt evocative of the springlike nature of the album—fresh beginnings, fresh start. Granted, green can represent envy but, for me, was more about feeling hopeful and turning a new page. This record is all about intuition, it’s all about feeling—I’m a Capricorn, and I am very much an overthinker. It was a real exercise in letting that go.
Many tracks on Green have a bit of a country twang to them, including “Lightning Strikes.” What drew you to that sound?
That’s so funny. I didn’t walk into writing any of these songs like, “I’m going to write a country song.” That was never in the cards. I think maybe living in Nashville, it bleeds into you occasionally.
Do you listen to country, or have you been since moving to Nashville in 2015?
I’ve listened to old country from Patsy Cline, and who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? I think those women are icons and absolutely brilliant at what they do. I love their music, but as far as a particular genre being the inspiration behind Green, I have to be honest, I don’t think we walked into making the album with that in our minds. We wrote songs, and they sounded like they sound.
You’re doing a residency at New York’s Café Carlyle from June 7-11. What made you decide to take that on?
It’s been a bucket list, dream thing. I’m super excited about it. Café Carlyle is iconic. I saw Eartha Kitt perform there many, many years ago, and I love the atmosphere and energy and intimacy of the place. When the opportunity came up, I jumped at the chance, because it’s been a dream of mine to perform there.
Emily Dorio
How do you balance your career as a model and your career as a musician, and how do you prioritize what projects to take on for each lane?
It’s hard, I’m not going to lie. There are definitely moments where I feel pulled in both directions. It’s a balance, and it’s not necessarily finessed 100 percent of the time. One thing I know about myself is that the moment I start feeling overwhelmed is the moment I have to cut something out and put my foot down and say, “Okay, I need time. I need time to replenish, I need time to think, I need time to consider if these are decisions that I’m making for work are based on people-pleasing or based on something that I want to do.”
It’s a balance, and I think the older I get, the better I am at juggling these things. But like I said, I’m human. There are moments where I’m pulling my hair out and being a nightmare to everyone around me because I’m so stressed. I can’t live in that state for longer than a week these days. I have to pull myself out of that, because it’s just not healthy.
They’re both obviously very creative industries and I’m sure there’s overlap. How does each of your careers inspire or enrich the other?
That’s a great question, because more than ever, they have both reflected each other. With the visuals of this album, I pulled from my many years of being a model. I have a friend of mine who’s an amazing photographer, Emily Dorio, and we came up with the visual concept and directed the music videos. I realize that there’s power in images. You can have a beautiful song, but the image also draws you in, the video draws you in; they’re all elements in the puzzle piece.
I’ve never been content with just being a model, per se. I view the models that I work with as very dynamic people. In a way, music influences the modeling aspect, because it goes to show that models are all multifaceted individuals and we all have outside interests. I think it only makes me better at my job, because I have a deeper understanding of the creative process behind the scenes and in front of the camera as well.
How did you develop and approach the visual concept for Green?
If you see on the album cover, I’m scaring everybody with a snake around my neck. It’s quite a vulnerable photograph, and what does that snake represent? It represents many things to me: It’s the duality of being a creative person, the double binding that we’re always in, and that’s a struggle. At the same time, I ultimately wanted the visual concept to feel evocative, and I wanted it to have a vulnerability to it.
I’ve been in the fashion industry for at least 25 years, and it was an opportunity to go, “Maybe I can creative direct this whole thing and see how that feels.” And it felt very much complimentary towards the music.
Did you ever feel underestimated as a musician, either when you were first starting out or even now, because you were model?
Absolutely. I was super insecure about my first two records and being taken seriously and feeling like people might think, “Oh, because you’re this person, you’re only viewed as that, and that’s the box you have to live in.” I realize all of that stuff is rooted clearly in my own shit, for lack of a better word, but it’s equally rooted in society and how we view women. You know, the idea of you can only be one thing, and you can’t be a multitude of things; most people are a multitude of things. I took myself less seriously and relaxed a little bit and realized that people are going to say things. I just had to get over it.
It’s the same when I released my coffee-table book, The Red Flame, during COVID. I wrote the book myself, picked out the pictures, and really put my heart and soul into it. It was a bummer that the book came out in a pandemic, but it was what it was. Again, nobody told me, “You should write a book.” I did it myself, and, sure, there’s insecurities, but I realized if you don’t believe in yourself, no one will.
Tell me a little bit more about the book. I know that along with including beautiful imagery of yourself, you address some things like body image and the highs and low of working in fashion. What overall was your goal in creating it?
I have seen a lot of absolutely gorgeous coffee-table books by many models and photographers that I admire. I remember the iconic Kate Moss book from the ’90s and how intimate that felt. My desire was to do something that also felt intimate, like you’re looking under the hood of the fashion industry. I have these beautiful images with incredible photographers I’ve had the pleasure of with working with over the years, but I also bring a bit of the backstory of my experience into it. It’s demystifying the idea that models are placed on this pedestal and that we’re devoid of emotion or experience. It’s a way to get vulnerable and say, “It’s not been without its struggles and its trials and tribulations.”
When I would do a fashion shoot and the clothes were too small, I was being judged. When it was a shoot with no clothes, I was being praised for my body. There’s this interesting juxtaposition between who you are and your view from the outside looking in, and how that affects your own view of yourself.
With her book, My Body, which I think is incredible, Emily Ratajkowski has delved even deeper into that strange juxtaposition of, who is that person you’re looking at? Have they been exploited? Who owns that image of her? Even with my book, it was my own exploration of, what really is this business that I’m in, and what does it represent?
Right now, I’m working with the Model Alliance, and they’re trying to pass legislation called the Fashion Workers Act in June with Senator Brad Hoylman. If this legislation passes, it will revolutionize the fashion industry for models, hair and makeup teams, photographers, editors, and more. It’s very exciting.
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